Casa HG by a3lier architettura
Casa HG anchors a3lier architettura’s renovation of an apartment on the outskirts of Zona Paolo Sarpi in Milano, Italy. The project keeps the existing layout yet rethinks every interior surface, using custom furniture, iron frames, and calibrated lighting to shape one large living volume into a sequence of connected rooms. Clear views run across the apartment, while each area carries its own mood, from the concrete-lined play corner to the warm, wood-floored bedrooms.
Late afternoon light slips across raw concrete and parquet, catching on iron frames that edge the living room. From the entrance, the apartment reads as one long, animated volume where every partition still lets the eye travel. A sense of movement comes from the way colors, textures, and built-in furniture trade places along the walls.
This apartment in Milano’s Zona Paolo Sarpi district is conceived by a3lier architettura as a complete interior and lighting project for a family home. The original layout stays in place, yet custom carpentry, iron work, and precise lighting reorganize daily life around a generous 60 square meter living area. The focus stays on how materials, partitions, and furniture define different functions while keeping the room visually continuous.
Framing The Living Core
The main living zone holds kitchen, dining, lounge, and a children’s play corner in one continuous footprint. Iron frames and micro-perforated surfaces stand in for solid walls, so boundaries feel present but never heavy. A micro-perforated iron partition separates the kitchen, filtering light and glimpses of movement between counters and sofa. Sightlines stay open across the full length, which gives the large room a steady, urban rhythm.
A sage green ceiling marks the dining area like a soft, hovering plane. Metal connecting frames gather a track system where spotlights wash the table with direct light and LED strips graze the ceiling above. The dining zone reads as its own room, yet remains linked to the kitchen and lounge through shared materials and continuous flooring. It feels defined, not closed.
Bookcases As Partitions
Bookcases work as both storage and architecture in this apartment. A low unit with an integrated coffee table separates the living area from circulation, turning storage into a spine for everyday routines. At the far end, a floor-to-ceiling bookcase in iron plates and clear lacquered raw black MDF anchors the room. The vertical grid sets a dark, graphic backdrop for books and objects.
The children’s play area tucks behind another bookcase partition along the living zone. Rough concrete from the condominium’s original structure meets patterned wallpaper here, so the corner feels playful and slightly raw at once. The partition itself lets activity spill into view without losing containment. Kids remain connected to family life while holding a corner of their own.
Carved Volume For Night Rooms
Custom-made, floor-to-ceiling furniture forms a central built volume that hides the private rooms behind. This volume aligns with the geometry of the apartment, turning walls into storage and quiet thresholds. Beyond it, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a walk-in closet, and a laundry room unfold around a calmer circulation path. Movement shifts from the open living core into a more contained night zone.
A separate area with a double-sided closet and pocket-like sliding door allows selective separation when needed. This element can close off part of the apartment for privacy or open to extend the living domain. Surfaces here rely on the same palette of iron, soft-touch laminate that matches wall color, and warm parquet. The continuity keeps the sequence legible.
Material Dialogue And Light
Iron, clear lacquered raw black MDF, soft-touch laminates, and exposed concrete set the project’s material tone. Parquet flooring runs throughout, tempering the cooler metal and masonry with a warmer underfoot experience. Where concrete from the existing structure was chipped during construction, its rough texture now plays against smoother built-in surfaces. The contrast gives depth without relying on decoration.
Lighting works with those materials to shape atmosphere through the day. Track-mounted spotlights concentrate brightness over the dining table, while indirect LED strips draw soft lines along ceilings and frames. Micro-perforated partitions catch and release light across their surfaces, adding a subtle shimmer when viewed at an angle. The apartment reads as one connected interior, yet every corner carries its own balance of glow, shadow, and texture.
From the outskirts of Zona Paolo Sarpi, Casa HG translates a changing, cosmopolitan neighborhood into an urban interior of frames, filters, and built-in volumes. The plan stays familiar, but materials and light redraw how rooms relate to one another. Daily life plays out inside a carefully tuned sequence, where a bookcase or ceiling color quietly shifts the mood from one zone to the next.
Photography by Pepe Fotografia
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